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As a features editor of architecture magazine, she covered design reviews, Interviews as a contributor and part time Features Editor. Also commissioned to write about architectural projects, people, and architectural culture.

I wrote feature profiles, architectural competition, event and exhibition reviews, and critique of built works; I have also interviewed and profiled local architects and theorists. as well as written journalistic, personal essays else where on internet since 2003/04.

I consider my writing style clean honest and direct. I try to be fair, curious, creative, decisive, accessible and interesting while analyzing design work for a broader audience.

Every time it rains in karachi. karachiites wonder about the waste of fresh water pouring from the sky down into our drains. We also learnt to value water eraly in our lives after we moved from a large D-103(house) to our freshly built modernly designed apartments. where to our amazement we had to “buy” water off tankers. which was an added cost over the water tax we (my dad)were already to pay to authorities.

ofcourse fast forward today i think about the waste = cost of living every now and then and still keep thinking about it.

Rainwater Collection and Re-Use is important for desert areas like karachi. Very few developers or house owners use this precious gift from above. Instead water run off from roofs finds its way to the lowest point, where inevitably it results in flash floods, damaged gardens and landscaping and at worst traffic disruption. Eventually the floods reside and this precious water has been lost into the sea or into the ground.

In 2007 i suggested that since KARACHI and its adjacent areas have been facing water shortage very commonly for the last decade and the situation is getting worse, both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is estimated that by 2010-2012, there could be a severe water shortage in the whole of the country that could result in a drought with serious implications.

Karachi, though being developed constantly, gets the water supply directly linked to thepower supply dependent on another province. A shortage of drinking water has crippled half of the city while poor infrastructure is the root cause of water shortage anywhere in Pakistan.

In the urban situation the fact is that the pollution of rivers and other water systems puts pressure on public water utilities to increase treatment costs. The city has no option but to source water from further and further away, which increases the cost of treatment and delivery of water. It also leads to inefficiencies in supply, along with lack of major and minor infrastructure, with distribution losses.

In short, there is less water to supply and there is less water for which full costs can be recovered. In a sense, the cost of supply and delivery is high; the city cannot afford to supply water equally to all.

The answer lies in finding cost-effective solutions to supply and disposal. This can only be done if the water utility is improved and, most importantly, the distribution losses can best be blocked by reducing the length of the pipelines and instead working through underground channels where soil conditions and natural slopes permit.

The city will be much more efficient if it can plan to localize its water utilities. That is, collect and supply water locally, and take back the waste locally also and then recycle it naturally. More importantly, it can find solutions to contain and save its annual rainfall endowment. This means implementing rainwater harvesting in each house and colony during monsoon.